A subterranean formation (e.g., a geological formation or zone) beneath a body of water may serve as a source and/or a storage location for a natural resource, such as hydrocarbons or water and/or for the disposal of carbon dioxide or another material. The recovery of hydrocarbons, such as oil or gas, from a subterranean formation beneath a body of water presents challenges in addition to those encountered when seeking to recover hydrocarbons from a subterranean formation penetrated by a wellbore located elsewhere (e.g., on dry land). These additional challenges encountered in drilling, completion, production, injection, and post-production operations may be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.
For example, subsea wells necessitate that wellbore servicing equipment be used during various operations (e.g., drilling, completion, stimulation, production, injection, or post-production operations) in a subsea environment, meaning that such equipment is exposed to open bodies of water and that operators do not experience the same level of control over the wellbore environment that operators working on dry land might. As such, equipment failure can yield catastrophic damage, for example, to the environment.
As such, what is needed are systems and methods for protecting subsea equipment and for reducing the threat of damage (e.g., environmental damage) resulting from subsea equipment failures in such environments.